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Monday, May 30, 2011

Jasper L. Horton's Obituary

I recently ordered a copy of Jasper L. Horton's obituary and received the following image that ran in the Baraboo Republic on 26 Aug 1929. I've transcribed the text below as part of the genealogy blogging meme Amanuensis Monday.

OBITUARY - Jasper L. Horton

Funeral services for Jasper L. Horton were held this morning at the grave in the North Freedom cemetery, the remains of the former Sauk county resident being brought here from San Francisco, Calif. accompanied by a daughter, Miss Alice Horton. Prayer was offered at the grave by the Rev. E. L. Quien.

Mr. Horton was born at Montgomery, Vermont on March 19, 1836, and passed away at the government hospital in San Francisco on August 19, 1929, at the age of 91 years, 5 months and 9 days. He resided with the daughter, Miss Alice, at Gilroy, California.

As a lad he came to Sauk county and this place was his home up to 12 years ago when he went west.He enlisted in the Civil war, August 15, 1862, at Loganville and was with Co. E of the 32 regiment of Wisconsin volunteers. He was discharged on July 1, 1865, having served 3 years, 1 month and 14 days.

He leaves to mourn his loss the one daughter of Gilroy, California and eight grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. His wife and one daughter preceeded him in death, and he was buried beside them in the North Freedom cemetery.

Tidbits of Note:
I have listed several tidbits of note from this obituary that caught my attention for one reason or another. I will need to conduct more research on them all as the details of some are not accurate.

Jasper was born in Montgomery, Vermont. I had learned through census records that he was born in Vermont, but now that I have a specific town I can narrow down my research.

Jasper died in California, which would explain why I hadn't been able to locate a death certificate for him in Wisconsin.

Jasper left Wisconsin 12 years before he died, which would have been around the same time his daughter Amelia Grace died or ran away (no evidence either way).

Jasper was a civil war veteran who served for over 3 years.

It lists only two daughters for Jasper in his obituary. It doesn't list his son Horace or his other daughters Mary J. and Amelia who are listed as his children in various census records. One thought of mind is that Alice (mention in the obituary and his youngest child - who most likely wrote this obituary) might not have known of his two eldest children (Horace and Mary J. who I lost track of in the late 1800's)? on the other hand, Amelia only had 5 children, which throws off the grandchildren and great grandchildren totals off, so someone else had kids, but who?

The obituary also notes that one of Jaspers daughter not mentioned by name preceded him in death... maybe the cheating grandma didn't cheat after all.

Also, there is no mention of his second wife who is buried near him at the North Freedom Cemetery.

As you can tell, this obituary was full of information that was unknown to me before. However, I am concerned about the accuracy the details stated and am therefore taking this all with a grain of salt.